Oil profits draw sharp response in Washington

Oil profits draw sharp response in Washington: "Exxon Mobil became the first corporation in world history to record quarterly revenue of more than 100 billion dollars. The figure compared with 76.4 billion dollars in the same quarter last year, and it was more than the gross domestic product of all but the 57 largest economies in the world.

Crude oil prices have hit record levels this year, rising as high as 70 dollars a barrel. The spike in prices is a result of increasing demand for oil in the United States, China and other Asian countries.

The price also was pushed up in the aftermath of hurricanes in the Gulf of Mexico, the U.S.'s largest drilling region. Numerous refineries were shut down temporarily because of the storms or were damaged in them.

The price of a barrel of crude oil has fallen to 61 dollars, but that's still about 41 per cent more than the same time last year.

Oil companies, for their part, point to the cyclical nature of the oil industry and to several years of lean profits when oil prices were as low as 10 dollars a barrel. "